Percy Cerutty - Heritage Plaque Awarded
Plaque name: Percy Cerutty (AUS)
Location: Percy Cerutty Oval, 33 Blair Road, Portsea VIC 3944, Australia.
Plaque awarded: 15/03/2021
Reason: Plaque Category – Legend
Percy Cerutty, born 10 January 1895 in Prahran, Victoria and died 14 August 1975 in Portsea, Victoria, Australia, was a pioneering track and field athletics coach.
In 1946, Cerutty moved to Portsea and set up a world-famous training camp for runners which especially utilized the local sand dunes for the most rigorous of training regimes.
In Portsea, Cerutty developed his unique and ultimately world famous ‘Stotan’ philosophy based on natural foods, weightlifting, and running in natural surroundings: percy-cerutty.com
His most famous pupil was Herb Elliott, 1960 Olympic champion at 1500m and multiple world record breaker at 1500m and the Mile.
“I would not be who I am or where I am without the lucky accident of meeting Percy when I was still at school,” reflected Herb Elliott. “He was highly inspiring. To hear Percy talk, you wanted to go out and shake the trees and shake the world.”
The plaque is to be located in Portsea.